PM warns of crisis if parliament fails to approve state budget

Friday, December 7, 2018

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Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has warned on Thursday the country would face crisis if the Parliament fails to approve the State budget on time.

With five days left to the final approval of the Lithuania’s State budget at the country’s parliament, Skvernelis has warned that the country’s working class would suffer the most if the lawmakers fail to approve the budget that also includes major tax and social reforms. “Around one million of Lithuanian workers in private as well as public sector would not see their taxes lowered, which means that they all would lose from 14 euros to 60 euros a month depending on their salary,” Skvernelis told the country’s liberal MPs during a sitting on Thursday. Failure to approve the budget would mean that the country’s institutions would receive one 12th of the annual funding every month next year, according to Skvernelis. This would cause “chain reaction” which would affect the upcoming elections, warned the Prime Minister.

“Living with only one 12th of the funding means that the Central Electoral Commission would receive only one 12 of the budget appropriations, ant the elections would not happen, because there would be no funding,” Skvernelis told MPs during a sitting, reports local media.

Next year, Lithuania will hold municipal, presidential elections and elections to the European Parliament. According to the latest state budget project proposed by the government, Lithuania’s state budget revenues are projected to amount to 10.590 billion euros, while state spending would amount to 11.696 billion euros.